Update to the Community

[Clay Weber]

While I do agree with you in general, there are reasons for this etiquette that have their basis more on efficiency and usability.

What we need to do is be friendlier about it, point folks to the guidelines a friendly manner
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/mailinglists
while maintaining a level of overall friendliness.


-- 
Clay Weber

Steve Riley <stvrly at gmail.com> wrote:

On 2012-05-30 17:01:18 Basil Chupin <blchupin at iinet.net.au> wrote:
>
> So concerned you are about it that you then go ahead and quote in full
> not only the original post but also the reply to it in HTML format!

The following is not directed to any one person specifically.

People have different online habits. Those who began their Internet journey 
adopted one set of habits, largely informed by the norms of the then-popular 
Usenet community. Some of these habits probably had to do with the limited 
storage space and narrow bandwidth of the times. Contributors to email and 
news threads parsed messages, carefully pruning and grafting elements so that 
only the necessary parts were carried through to maintain the conversation 
flow.

Other people began their Internet journey differently. Mostly, these folk 
initially gained their computer experience using internal corporate systems, 
where storage and bandwidth were less of a concern. The tools themselves 
(yeah, I mean Outlook and Notes) adopted a different pattern. Top-posting and 
reply-all was (and is) useful in corporate settings. The ability to apply text 
formatting is also useful. Naturally, these people brought their behavior to 
the Internet when corporate networks and the Internet converged.

Personally, I straddle both worlds. But I don't think it's right to expect 
everyone to do that. Kvetching on lists about the "proper" way to format 
messages is likely not to result in the desired behavior changes. In fact, it 
comes across as elitist and alienating.

If Windows 8 turns out to be the disaster that the prognosticators appear 
convinced it will be, a certain percentage of Windows exiles might find their 
way to Kubuntu. Some of these might also find their way to this email list. 
They will bring with them habits gained from years of doing things the Windows 
way. Are these habits in some manner wrong? No, of course not. They're just 
different. We, then, are faced with a choice: we can either welcome them to the 
wonderful world that is community-driven free software, or we can drive them 
away. Let's not drive them away.

...Steve Riley
...administrator, Kubuntu Forums


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